When the notarization on foreclosures issue suddenly flared up over the last 24 hours, my heart sank. Just as regular homeowners were starting to get some legal traction to fight back against fraud and predatory lending by big banks, it seemed, some bank lobbyist had managed to sneak something through in the dead of night that would screw people over again. It was Washington at its worst: the bank lobbyists in control, and Congress asleep at the wheel.
But then, that most delightful and rare of Washington moments happened: the system worked. Consumer advocates started raising hell on the blogs and in traditional media, the White House started looking more closely at the issue, and literally within a matter of hours, Obama announced that he was not going to sign the bill. No long, painful, drawn out internal debate at 1600 Pennsylvania. No twisting round trying to split the middle on the issue. As soon as the issue was raised, the White House team focused on it, and made the right decision quickly. Elizabeth Warren, the new Assistant to the President and Treasury Secretary, weighed in. Pete Rouse, the new Chief of Staff, got engaged immediately. And the President made the right decision.
So what did we learn? First, that exposing sleazy dead-of-night deals cut by the special interests does sometimes work. And second, that having good people in key government roles really does matter. Obama might well have done the right thing without Warren and Rouse there, but it sure did happen quickly and easily with them around.
So, okay, I haven't lost it: I know that not all these decisions are going to go the right way as far as progressives and consumer advocates are concerned. But I think it is fair to ask ourselves what happens next and how the progressive community should respond to it.
I know the progressive community has a lot of folks who strongly dislike Obama, and won't change in that view. I know others who still strongly support him. (For myself, I have been in the middle- critical on quite a few things, supportive on others). But the tensions between Obama and many in the progressive community have been quite palpable for quite awhile now, on both sides. The question now is how progressives respond if Obama does start to move in a more progressive direction.
I know all the past sins people commenting on this post will recite (commenters, start your engines), but look at the past few weeks: the move toward more progressive and populist rhetoric on the campaign trail; the appointment of Warren; insisting on letting the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year expire; the replacement of Rahm with Pete Rouse, who is thought by many inside the White House to be more sympathetic to progressive points of view than Rahm was. Based on what I am hearing, there will be more outreach to progressives over the next several weeks than there has been for a while.
So is it all nirvana? Is Obama turning into Bernie Sanders? Of course not. But if the Obama White House starts a concerted effort to reach out to progressives, and appoints some of them to key positions, and works with them constructively on more issues, does that change how the progressive community works with the White House?
I hope so. In the late '50s and early '60s, John and Bobby Kennedy did not start as avid civil rights advocates, and LBJ was cutting deals in the Senate for incredibly weak, watered-down civil rights bills. But the movement pushed them, and they responded by eventually moving left. Same with FDR and labor in the 1930s, and Lincoln and the abolitionists in the 1860s. Those movements had the flexibility and strategic sophistication to protest those Presidents when they needed protesting or work constructively with Presidents when they moved in the right direction- they didn't engage in a one size fits all tactic of protesting everything all the time. I hope the progressive community today has the strategic wisdom.
I don't know for sure what will happen next in the White House, or whether there will be more outreach and appointments and policy decisions us progressive activists cheer- it is way too early to tell. But progressives should be ready to move to meet the President halfway and work with him in the areas where he does move our direction, and we shouldn't always assume the worst. We should keep our healthy skepticism, push hard when we need to push, but be ready to engage when a door is opened to us to engage on.
Interesting. He blew his political capital on healthcare instead of bills to push the economy. Then kills his own healthcare bill by granting waivers to 30 companies.
He spent almost a trillion on stimulus and promised that joblessness would not surpass 8 percent and we are between 9.5 and 10 percent...
And you want to ask what's next? How about impeachment?
At any of our jobs we would be fired for these actions.
almost want Palin to win in 2012
Look for another cave by POTUS in the near future.
H.R. 3808 is Obama's "Bay of Pigs"
The Democratically controlled House & Senate have been abandoned on the beach ... and their intentions exposed ... forcing Obama to distance himself from the mission !
Why did the Democratic Leadership "press to have this bill rushed through the special procedure ... without any debate ... and no record of votes cast?"
The Democratic Leadership needs to explain this blatant display of political corruption.
Busted !
Why? Most short sellers DO NOT want to sell their home they want to stay (if the payments were affordable) thus they are not looking for a new home absent being forced to sell short. Under Fannie and Freddie rules when they do sell short they are FORBIDDEN from BUYING for 2-5 years. Thus in Florida alone perhaps 500,000 to 1 million homes are artificially on the market and that same 500,000 to 1 million buyers are NOT in the market
The solution: Fannie and Freddie fund the transaction costs of converting short sales into debt-for-equity swaps (please see http://fixhousing.blogspot.com which explains how).
What happens: The existing loan is converted to three pieces: a loan for 80% of current value (which will be current since the homeowner will pay) on the same terms as the original loan, a zero-interest loan for 20% of current value (essentially the current equity above the 80% loan), a PARTICIPATION interest in future appreciation
Immediate benefits: perhaps 2,000,000 homes exit the marketplace, and on those homes the mortgages will become liquid and performing in 13 months which helps the banks which wrote the loans
This is a BUSINESS solution to a business problem which has been corrupted by politics.
We ain't seen nothing yet.
Plus, he has been expected to magically fix the economy in 18 mos. while Bush had 8 long years to ruin it thanks to deregulation allowed by congress, and which is threatened to continue if Republicans take Congress.
I'm just going to highlight some of what Obama has to do, taken from another article, which juxtaposes Obama's tasks as president with LBJ and FDR.
"First, Obama was tasked with rescuing the economy, overseeing two costly wars, improving a deteriorating job market, addressing a crushing debt, and fixing health care, energy policy, immigration, a housing crisis, a collapsing U.S. auto industry, the Gitmo mess, and America's reputation around the world.
Second, Obama is expected to do all of this without Republican support on anything. The GOP simply pretended that its spectacular failures didn't discredit the party.
And third, Obama, for the first time in American history, is told that every one of his proposals has to get 60 votes in the Senate to proceed"
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_12/021610.php
And when he's saving our asses from bills like this that just glide through Congress...He deserves more respect and he deserves the help of a friendly Congress to get things done.
So GO VOTE!
the point is we are in for a lot of pain to cleanse the credit market and get back on solid ground and a path to sustainable money growth via a healthy credit market. As the FED tries to inflate away the bad debts average Americans will see their standard of living deflate.
Once we are out of the way the members of Congress that sold us out will be right behind us!
Sorry no, Congress wasn't asleep at the wheel they were lined up at the trough. There is no valid reason that to have an un-recorded voice vote with no debate...